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Showing posts from July, 2009

I love great customer service....Kollage Needles

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Great news! I found the receipt from the Kollage needles we purchased in December. Mark at Kollage is sending replacement needles to me. No hassles involved. Here's to the people at Kollage. The made the day sunny for me. I had so much fun reading the commets on the questionairre post. Thank you to those who entertained me. Just so you know: I picked up the jeans that were left in my bushes, with a gloved hand and put them in the trash outside. I felt a bit guilty for not cleaning them and donating them to charity. I just couldn't do it. My sister would have! And someone would have a pair of needed jeans..... I'll have to make that one up in spades. Tried to knit some baby leggings on the el yesterday. We went to the Cubbie game! It was wonderful all the way around. !2-0 win. By evening my arm was twinging.......darn it. Something about circular knitting is the culprit. Back to flat. I do however, dream of getting back to my log cabin quilt after I finish the

Questions with a blog purpose

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(The image has nothing to do with the questions. Just my obsessive need to keep the blog knit centered. This new bag, brought to me from the BIg Island of Hawaii as a gift, has been big and perfect for the growing ruffled shawl.) Please be jealous. Thank you. I'm deciding on some blog post topics. Help me out if you wish. QUESTIONS: Does anyone remember the soap opera, LOVE OF CHAIR? Is it always a mistake to feed a chipmunk (not by hand of course. This rabies conscious RN is far too much of a worrier for that!) Do you know who is in First Place? What is the worst knitting related thing you ever purchased? Are there hallmark cards for when your child flies the nest and moves out? Are coconut M and M's made with real coconut inside? I woulndt know or dare to try one. Coconut is the worst texture food I have even eaten. I am not a fan. However, some of my friends love the stuff. I need to know for them. Have you seen Cavalia? If Fireman asked you for a birthday list,

So many details.......

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This is my friend Jane's crocheted square. I am so impressed. She is making a tablecloth out of the squares for her lucky niece. Maybe Jane is a long lost aunt of mine.........something to ponder..... It all looks like so much detail and that makes it that much more interesting to me. She said the pattern is in a Ladies Home Journal from the 1970s. More details: She has made one before! The new camera is wonderful at detail. Zach taught me how to use the Manual modes on vacation. If I just paid attention to detail when we first got the camera, I could have mastered this sooner. Do you see my angel in the backround???? I like to think there are always angels in our backrounds. My mind is full of details currently. A juxtapostion from vacation that is for sure. Al moves out in a week. More details later. Zach goes to college in a month. More details later. Many details they have to attend to. Zach is a freshman so we are into all the details involved. After going to

Stay with me, blog readers.........

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I am very certain you do not need to see the inch by inch progress on the Ruffle Shawl. What else do humans measure by inch frequently? Bass and other fish Rainfall ( I have broken so many gauges, I just call my dear mom. It is an excuse to chat and make her feel like her totals are the official) Puppies of course (from morning to night they grow in front of your eyes) Head circumference on some babies one's girth (for the truly motivated) present company Excluded and the last one I'll offer is: the amount of apricot filled brie I can afford at the farmers market! Please chime in. Any others that immediately come to mind? On other notes: Im showing you the gorgeous label on the coffee Al brought us from Alaska. I want to frame it. But that is just me. I am trying cooking/scone/bread mixes to see if my ratio of baking success to failure will improve. I can add a stick of butter,egg and vanilla speedy quick, and have incredible cookies ready pronto. These were just plain o

Record lows in Boulder Jct. Wi call for handknits

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Years past I've shown you Al knitting while we are on the fishing boat. This year she donned the Dream in Color Slouch Hat on the boat. Somedays the highs were in the 50s. There is no knitting in her hands these days. Just her Nclex Cards for Nursing Boards. Even on vacation. Even on the boat. One more semester and she'll graduate. Maybe then she'll have time to knit again. I hope so! I'll talk to you in the comments. :)

Look real hard and you'll see him

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The white buck. He is in the middle of the frame. In all the years we have been in the Northwoods of Wisconsin we have never seen the white deer that are revered. On our last day of vacation I was having a good stare out the passenger side window and swore I saw the ghost like deer in the woods. Fireman turned around and went back down the highway a ways, and this time he spotted it. I couldn't get very close. I have been working on a prayer shawl/lap blanket for my father. There are some issues that I continue to work at in our relationship. I was finding myself feeling his frequently challenging personality coming through the stitches. I keep praying about it, and for him. Anyhow my father is an Outdoorsman and taught me to love the Northwoods, a bit by accident. So, when I came across the white buck, I decided then to add it to his lap blanket. Did I see the rarer beauty this year so that it would be part of my father's shawl? What do you think? I'll

Shawl Progress on Vacation

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The Mac'n Me Ruffled Shawl grew 10 inches on vacation. I think my girth grew about that too. We stay at the WIldcat Lodge in Boulder Junction where owner and chef Tim France feeds us wonderfully all week. I love American Plan. We were measuring the bass we caught with a knitting tape measure for awhile. Fireman made the fishing board with a 17 inch large mouth. Then we misplaced the tape, and so I used a knitting pattern in a plastic cover for measurement. It was your basic 8 and a half by 11 inch paper. All of the fish were larger than the 11 inch size by a good bit. Sometimes the fisherman is so glad to have the knitter aboard. There was a tiny finger injury on the first day, due to a fish hook mishap. It is on my right index finger, but it isn't even causing a pause in the knitting. What does cause some pauses in my knitting is a needle issue. . My Kollage square needles are wearing at the join on one needle side. It is causing the yarn to split and snag at

Overjoyed to tell you.....

I'll talk to you in the comments. :) somehow someway every little thought worked very very hard because the camera works....... I am so lucky. Your comments are/were so very much appreciated. Thanks for letting me cry on your pretend shoulders now celebrate with me! A million thanks......

THe Frugal Hungarian's Irisheyes Wept

I'll talk to you in the comments. :) When the brand new camera fell into the lake today. And when It happened, I just stared at it in disbelief. Fireman hit the dock deck and scooped it out of the water within less than a minute..... These things happen. There it goes. Our fishing guide Todd says to give it till tomorrow to dry out and see. It is only money I had it for just over a month. About 20 dollars a day to enjoy it. oh oh oh ouch. On the knitting front, Im working on the prayer shawl. I still love knitting it up. Huck is in great form with no further issues from 10 days ago. It is only a camera. One day at a time. No images for awhile here..... I am the one who dropped it.

Now the baby can dance...

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I decided the baby leg warmers needed something. There were too plain. I got the idea for fringe when I was working the fringe on my Aunt's prayer shawl. I think they are cute. I love moccasins and the beauty of beadwork. But, baby and beads mean choking to me, so the suede fringe will have to do. I wanted to put them by the heel end, but feared the baby would trip if she could stand. I'm not sure how big the babygirl is now. Am I bold or what? Well we all know the answer to that. I am asking the mom and dad to return them to me if she is already outgrown them. And I'll admit I'm pretty loyal to my blog readers and friends. However once in a while I lurk too. If things are slow with posts, I'll pick a favorite blogger and go to all her BLOGS I READ section. I don't have a section like that, because I don't know how and am too lazy to find out. Do you read other bloggers comments and then go to their blogs??? You can always check my comments a

Book Review by ME!

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This book is perfect for me. Having been inspired by friend's Carol and Karen, I began knitting a prayer shawl. I'm hooked. I don't believe in coincidence you know, so I do believe they and this new knitting direction was Divine intervention! I am strangely serene with this form of knitting. Perhaps it comes from the past. I had a yellow blanket for securty until I was five. My well meaning NANA paid me 5 dollars to give it to the garbage man. I've regretted it ever since.... This is a great book. Patterns a pretty straightforward, rhythmic and relaxing work. The Photographs are lovely. Lots of good yarn ideas for me. I love to see something knit up Large so I can really examine it. Some big needle projects! I'm so over sock yarns ......... This book has me conisdering the following yarns: Alchemy Yarns Synchronicity and Alchemy Yarns Wabi Sabi (have you?) One of the shawl patterns includes a pocket: The Calming Shawl by Jodi Lewanda Marian McKittrach's

Kollage Square Needle

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Some have expressed interest in the Kollage square double points that I am using to knit up my shawl. This is my artsy photo of one end. They are a pretty copper color. I can see the color wearing in some parts of the point from all the use they are getting. I didn't notice this until I took a closeup. Doesn't bother me atall. Google Kollage needles and they come right up. I am a big square needle fan. I will be buying more. Very very easy on my arm. This opens up a whole new world of sizes I need.......hence a couple years of square needle gifts from the family! Santa brought me this pair. :) My girl is in Alaska! Maybe she'll find a pair of Alaskan square needles for me there...... not likely. I hope I get a nice coffee mug though! Im so happy she is taking this trip to see a friend. I hope hope hope she sees the Northern lights..... have you been to Alaska? I have to get over this flying thing.......I'm so jealous of her... I'll talk to you in the c

Red White and Blue

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The grown children protest as I hang my Patriotic balloon lights for the summer Holidays. I only wish I had a little trailer on a lake somewhere to put them in a better place! Happy Fourth of July.

Pictureless post: Dog friends , please read

I'll talk to you in the comments. :) Have any of you had a dog or friend who had a dog with laryngeal paralysis?? Huck is doing some odd things. I've been overeading on the internet. At the vet this morning. Xrays good. Waiting, watching. Not panicking.

That's a lot of yarn

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Before we discuss frugality, I must show you Karen's Summer Blues Tank. The pattern is in the May issue of Creative Knitting. Karen is knitting it up with Naturally DK by Wendy. She assures me it is a very easy to memorize the pattern. Two pieces to knit and 4 seams to the finish. She is a great great knitter. And she's threatening to finish her blocks cardigan. Stay tuned for that one. So I'm at work the other day and a nurse friend's normally naturally curly curly hair is stick straight. (I love stick straight hair!) She paid 400.00 that's FOUR hundred dollars for a protein straightening treatment. It will last almost 4 months. That's a hundred dollars a month or roughly 3 dollars a day to have effortless hair.......and it looks so healthy! She's at a different place in her life.......I think that treatment is a whole lotta yarn. The thought, however, of loving my hair daily for 4 months is almost tempting... There isn't much yarn buying goin